Cases of coronavirus caught on hospital wards have fallen by a third since the start of January despite a record number of inpatients, NHS figures show.
The data shows the average number of Covid-19 cases caught on wards in England has dropped from 553 on January 10 to 369 on January 25, a fall of 33 per cent.
This has happened despite the number of patients in hospitals rising throughout the month, with a now record 3,600 people in intensive care and 32,000 inpatients.
Falling in-hospital infections, also known as nosocomial infections, come alongside a decline in daily hospital admissions in all regions of England.
The number of Covid cases caught in hospital on any single day this month was highest on January 4 with 635 cases, a day before the third national lockdown came into force.
This then halved to a low of 304 on January 22, while the daily average, calculated over seven days, has declined more slowly.
The data shows the average number of Covid-19 cases caught on wards has dropped from 553 on January 10 to an average low of 369 on January 25 across England
Sir Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, warned on Tuesday that doctors and nurses were still seeing no respite from ‘incessant’ Covid admissions. Pictured: A patient at King’s College Hospital in London
The total number of Covid-19 patients on wards remains ‘incredibly high’, Professor Chris Whitty warned this week, and is 80 per cent above the peak of the first wave.
And the numbers on mechanical ventilators are at their highest level since the pandemic began at 30 per cent above the levels in April, although in the most recent days this has started to dip on a national level.
Preventing the spread of coronavirus in hospital is being achieved by all patient-facing staff wearing large amounts of protective equipment.
All are required to wear gloves, masks and aprons whether they are meeting Covid patients or not.
And wards have been segregated to keep Covid-positive patients away from others who are there for treatment for other serious illnesses.
The risk of transmission in hospitals is high because patients generally have large amounts of the virus in their body, which is what makes them sicker, and medical staff regularly have to touch them and get extremely close.
Testing surveys have found that staff working in patient-facing medical roles are more likely to contract coronavirus than the general population.
But hospitals are now warning that keeping Covid and non-Covid patients separate is becoming increasingly difficult as wards get ever busier.
Papers published before a board meeting of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust, according to The Times, stated: ‘It is becoming much more difficult to separate the Covid positive and Covid negative patients.’
The documents said it was increasingly common for patients admitted into ‘cold’ areas for non-Covid treatment to be transferred into ‘hot’ areas for Covid sufferers despite showing no symptoms.
Sir Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, warned on Tuesday that doctors and nurses were still seeing no respite from ‘incessant’ Covid admissions.
A Covid-19 adviser to the British Medical Association said earlier this month a staff member from a London hospital said it was ‘impossible’ to segregate Covid patients.
Dr David Strain said: ‘I heard reports from a staff member in central London who had completed a 12-hour shift where it was impossible to maintain a safe distance, it was impossible to segregate patients with coronavirus from those without it. She was genuinely fearful for patients and her staff.’
NHS staff were among those who were offered the jab when the rollout began in December and England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam has said jabs ‘couldn’t fail to have some effect on transmission’.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference he said it was less a question of ‘will they?’ and rather ‘to what extent’ will inoculation help to reduce the spread.
However England’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said he would be ‘extremely cautious’ about the effect vaccines on transmissibility until there was ‘proper data’ available.
He added: ‘You shouldn’t expect to see nobody getting ill who’s been vaccinated. Vaccines are not 100 per cent effective. We will still see people who get disease.’
The daily number of Covid-19 hospitalisations in England has peaked but remains ‘incredibly high’. Above it is broken down by regions of England